What is like to travel in Egypt nowadays?

Are you wondering if it's safe to travel to Egypt? Besides the amazing ancient monuments and great fun, here are the not so great things you must be aware of before traveling to Egypt. It's better to be prepared rather than disappointed. For the post about safety, click here.

I had traveled to nearly 70 countries before Egypt, therefore I’d had some expectations and I had thought I’d prepared myself mentally for visiting the lands of the pharaohs. Nevertheless, many things still managed to surprise me in Egypt. The following is based on my subjective experiences and may differ from what others might have experienced. However, I would like to share what it was like to follow the trail of ancient Egyptians - from Cairo down to the Sudanese border. I haven’t been to the resorts, so I can’t comment on that.

1. Culture Shock, pollution and poverty

The first thing you’ll experience after landing in Cairo is a culture shock. Having had visited India, several countries in the Middle East, Morocco and South East Asia, I kind of knew that I would be in for a culture shock. But the shock was way larger than I had expected in the end. The city of Cairo is unbelievably polluted - multiple canals are covered with trash, sometimes it’s not even possible to see the water underneath. The same applies to the streets - chaos and limitless mess are visible everywhere, unfortunately not in a pleasant sense. The air pollution is so great that the smog creates some sort of thick fog - although the pyramids are so close to the city, sometimes, we could hardly see them because of the deadly mist. Your throat will be irritated in Cairo - not a good sign for people with breathing problems. Also, unfortunately, the problem of severe poverty is ubiquitous. At times, it’s very sad and hard to watch - I didn’t expect it to be present on such a large scale in Cairo. This is not the poverty of some rural areas where life is quiet and idyllic - here, the poverty has the color of grey, smell of choking smoke and noise of the old, devastated cars releasing dark fumes in endless traffic jams. In the countryside, it gets even more severe.

Typical scene in Cairo outside the center

2. Organised tours

I am not a big fan of organised tours. I love to explore the real side of the place I’m in - to see the real people, real places according to my own rhythm. Having traveled in Egypt both with the organised tour and partly exploring the country on my own, I can say that independent movement is not possible in Egypt easily.

Although our guide said that it’s perfectly fine to travel independently throughout Egypt, I can assure you that such a journey would be suitable only to the most hardcore backpackers. First, it would take way longer than expected. Second, it’s very difficult to use public transport that would take you to the tourist attractions - you would need a driver or a tour anyway (with the exception of Cairo city where you can catch Uber).

Let’s assume you’d like to rent a car in Egypt and drive on the roads of Cairo (considering you are from the western countries). That - if not impossible at all - wouldn’t be a pleasant experience at all. Then, if you wanted to drive down south through the country, you would have to get through the numerous police checkpoints along the way to Aswan - another nerve wrecking experience, especially not knowing the language and being a foreigner (where bribes are not that uncommon).

That leaves an organised tour the only reliable option.

3. Independent travel

As mentioned above, independent travel in Egypt is quite difficult and, especially for an inexperienced person (or a woman), may be almost impossible. We traveled through the whole country with the organized tours, however, we had a few free days for ourselves. While most of the tourists from out tour decided to stay at the swimming pool hotel, we chose to explore the country on our own - I just can’t stay longer than a few hours at the pool doing nothing. I need to get going.

We had a few peculiar experiences during that time - first in Cairo, when traveling nearly 130 km (80 miles)/hour in an Uber car which had no seat-belts and the driver, who seemed to have wanted to show off how good he was at car races, sped up like crazy zigzagging in between the other vehicles.

Then, everyone could sense we were not locals, and many kept approaching us to sell stuff or to ask for money just for talking to us. It was a bit unpleasant as you really don’t know if a person you’re talking to is honestly interested in a conversation or just wants to take an advantage - this is a very common thing in Egypt - it’s even stronger than in Morocco and that’s the first thing that makes the independent travel so uncomfortable. However, I assume it’s a whole different story if you’re traveling with a local though.

Subsequently, in Aswan, we were invited to visit an abandoned ancient tomb by a village “guide” and right behind him, another guy with a huge machine gun appeared out of nowhere pointing with the weapon towards the door encouraging us to enter. Just like sheep into a cage. That was one of the most weird and scary things we’d been through in Egypt. Especially having had read about the massacre in the temple of Hatsheput where the trapped tourists were shot. There was absolutely no one there except the 5 of us and the “guides” waving with their gun in total silence inside that tiny tomb, a dark closed space.

It’s a common sight to see heavy security forces at the ancient site in Egypt (which in itself is quite disturbing) - but in Aswan, those were the local villagers - not the official security men you can meet elsewhere. Thanks God, after paying the tips for the guidance and “protection”, we were safely let go.

Also in Aswan, by following Google Maps, while walking towards the unfinished obelisk (it’s something worth visiting by the way), we ended up in the worst slum possible where locals were not too happy to see us and threw some insults at us (especially addressing the women who were with us) and then, after deciding to take a taxi back, suddenly it made a horrible noise and broke down nearly falling into pieces in the middle of the busy road releasing clouds of smoke. I’ll write more about the experiences in Aswan in a separate post dedicated to that city.

Do I regret those experiences and do I wish I had stayed in the hotel? Despite of all, definitely not. It was something I will never forget.

4. Scams and Pushy street vendors

The street vendors and merchants are annoyingly pushy and rude. This is a case everywhere, but at the tourist spots such as pyramids and temples, it is so intense that you will almost loose the pleasure of visiting one of the greatest monuments in the known human history. The merchants will do anything in order to make you buy anything - they will talk, shout, touch and even throw some things at you (like scarfs) - if it’s on you - it means you’ve bought it. I don’t even want to mention of the constant tricking the tourists and lying about prices (quoting Egyptian pounds and then demanding the amount in British pounds - 50 Egyptian pounds is 2 GBP). I understand that this is their life and due to poverty, they try to do anything to make the ends meet. However, in any other place, I noticed that tourists usually love to roam around the stands and buy souvenirs - in Egypt, our group ran through the stands to enter the bus as quickly as possible just to avoid the annoyance! For the vendors, this creates the opposite reaction to the desired one.

Usually, as westerners explain, the poverty is the excuse for the vendors to lie and cheat - however, I’ve been to many other countries that are not rich (rural Ukraine and Moldova, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Albania, Kazakhstan) which are almost as poor in places - and I have never encountered anything like that to such an extent as it was in Egypt. I suppose only Thailand comes close.

6. Hygiene standards

Hygiene standards was yet another reason why we sometimes felt like imprisoned in the hotels. Don’t get me wrong - in Egypt, you can get really nice hotels with swimming pools and other attractions for very reasonable prices - they are clean and up to the western standards. Egyptian food is delicious - if prepared the right way. But the moment you leave your hotel, you will be hit by the reality immediately. The stares of the people, shouts, noises, ubiquitous burning of trash and air pollution don’t make you feel too welcome. I wouldn’t recommend to eat from a street stalls nor having unpeeled fruit either - I tried it and for the next few days I suffered from stomach issues. Only the food in the hotel and bottled water is safe - we were even told not to brush our teeth with the water from the bathroom by the hotel staff.

7. Independent travel for women

It’s a different story to travel in Egypt if you’re a women. Unfortunately, I don’t have good news. If you walk the local streets on your own (even modestly dressed), you will drawn the (unwanted) attention of the local men around. They might comment, approach and even appear intimidating. Although the women who traveled with us were always accompanied by men, the locals, on some occasions, still threw offensive remarks at them (especially in smaller towns) - why do we know the remarks were insulting? They were shouting and showing the middle finger to us - so for sure it wasn’t something overly nice.

Is it worth traveling to Egypt then?

You must think that the statements above are pretty negative so what’s the point of even thinking of going to Egypt? That is not the case here - everybody’s experience is different and if you have a chance to travel to Egypt - do - you will enjoy it (and we did). It’s just better to be prepared then sorry. If you’d like to know if Egypt is really worth it - take a look at this post.

Author: Tom @ Adventurous Travels